The Abandoned House
by Coraline15
Summary: There had been stories about a district just outside the main gate of Radiant Garden. As Sora and his friends go to investigate the abandoned section of the town, they soon discover that one of the buildings has been hiding a dark secret.
1. Chapter 1

The Abandoned House

**_Disclaimers: All Kingdom Hearts characters are owned by Disney and Square Enix and are all copied without permission. I have made this story for fun and not profit._**

Writer's Note: This is an RP with one of my friends.. I had thought that since it was getting close to Halloween, this would make a good story to read.. Also, this story might get a bit dark, so to those who are easily disturbed, don't say I didn't warn you.. In any case, I hope you all enjoy the story (Rated for dark themes)

Prologue

Sora, Riku, and Kairi made their way through Radiant Garden. They had heard many rumors that while Radiant Garden had been reconstructed, there had been an area just outside of the main gate, which was closed off by the public as it was deemed unsafe. As they walked through the gate, they could see Axel, and Roxas were waiting for them.

"Hey guys!" Axel remarked with a big grin, waving his hand in the air. "You guys came after all! I'm so glad to see you guys showed up!"

"Great that you could come." Roxas remarked with a big grin.

Sora smiled and nodded.

"Well, it's important to make sure all darkness is gone, since we hadn't really had the time to explore the first time we were here."

Riku nodded.

"What I remember, there hasn't been anyone in the old section of the town since Hollow Bastion was changed back to Radiant Garden.. So, there may be some unstable areas of the town left behind."

"We're gonna be fine! We got ME!" Axel laughed as he held up his hand. "Sha-BAM! Blazing samurai!" He said, forming some fiery artwork above his palm.

In reality, it looked like a poorly drawn stick figure with a shield and sword.

"...I think you gotta work on it." Roxas chuckled.

Sora chuckled while Riku shook his head.

"Well, what're we waiting for?" said Sora.

Roxas nodded and soon they made their way past the mostly destroyed gate. As they walked through the gate, it was easy to see that much of the hidden part of the town had become nothing but ruins, as much of it was half buried beneath the rubble and debris.

Axel sniffed at the air.

"I can still smell the stench of smoke in the air." He confessed. "It's strong." He told the others as they made their way through the town, seeing all the debris that had fallen about.

As they made it to the edge of the town, a shocking sight met them.. There was a house which had two floors and what looked like a basement. Much of the building was blackened from what seemed to have been a fire. However, the wood still seemed to be smoldering as if the fire had been recent.

"Let's take a look inside." Axel offered warmly to the others as they nodded, going towards the building, Sora glancing around as they carefully eased the burned-off door open.

"Wow, yeah...definitely seen some better days."

The door made a low creak as it moved on long rusted out hinges. Roxas was the first to cross the threshold of the living room. It was rather dark, as if the light from outside was blocked from entering the building. Slowly, Riku, and Sora followed behind him. As they all entered the main room, they paused to take in the size of the room. At the far end sat a blood red couch in front of the rather ornate fireplace and a half-rotten rug sat below it. Sora took a step toward it, when he felt the floor give way. He let out a cry of shock as his foot went through the scorched wood!

"Sora!"

Kairi hurried to Sora, who thankfully hadn't completely fallen through. The splintering wood dug into his skin, drawing blood the more and more he struggled against the broken wood.

"Hold on!" Roxas shouted.

He raced over to his friend, helping to pull him up. Sora flinched as he was pulled free and was pulled up onto the more sturdy area of the floor. They all glanced at the broken wood where Sora had fallen and could see more of the floor was covered with cracked and splintering floorboards.

"Let's all watch our step." Riku suggested sagely. "Literally!"

Ignoring the throbbing pain in his leg, Sora glanced over at where he had fallen through, taking note of the darkness within what he realized was a basement. He could see a pile of rubble within the house's deep and dark basement. Roxas turned to where Sora was looking as a chill ran through him.

"There's something wrong about this place. REALLY wrong." Sora murmured, a shudder going through him. "And it smells really bad here."

"Let's check in the basement." Riku said, sniffing at the air. "The smell is strongest from there."

Riku then looked over toward the far side of the room and could see an old and rotted out door. Slowly, he made his way toward it. Riku put his hand to the door's brass knob and tried to open it, finding it won't open. After a few moments, he pulled out his Braveheart Keyblade and unlocked it. He turned the knob and found it was jammed shut. Giving the door a hard shove, the door swung open to reveal nothing but inky darkness.

**Author's Note: I had wanted to make this into a story ever since I had started the RP.. It may take a while to upload chapters since my work schedule is not always the same.. I will try my best to update when I am able to..**


	2. Chapter 2

Part One

"Let's get some light in here." Axel offered, holding out his OWN keyblade.

_*THA-THWOOSH!*_

A dancing set of fires barreled forth, twirling around them, acting as torches!

As the light lit up the darkness, it was easy to see the old and rotting steps leading down to the basement. Taking a breath, Riku began to lead the way down into the basement. As they all reached the bottom steps, a smell hit them all at once. Sora coughed as he stumbled back a bit. Roxas did his best to fight the nausea that was building within him and he took a step toward the main room of the basement. Roxas summoned his Oblivion Keyblade and cast a light spell.. The entire room was in complete disrepair. Most of the furniture had been scorched and blackened and were scattered about the room.

"Let's look around." Riku said, examining several pieces of furniture as Sora, in turn, sniffed at a nearby toy chest that was heavily locked, and HUGE, though burned.

"This thing smells so FOUL!" He remarked aloud, trying to open it up. "What is up with it?"

Roxas Slowly inched closer toward the chest. After hesitating for a moment, he summoned his Keyblade. He slowly raised it toward the lock, casting out a beam of light. With a resounding click, the lock came open. Together, they pushed open the chest.. And were greeted by a horrifying sight!

Within the chest, lay a body. Pale gray skin was stretched over the bones of what had once been a young girl. Around her neck was a pendant with the unmistakable symbol of an inverted heart. The inside of the chest, which had once been lined with velvet, was torn to shreds.

"Oh geez...this is horrible..." Sora murmured as Roxas frowned.

"That...that symbol..." He whispered, his eyes widening as the others looked down at it. "It...it can't be!"

It was then that they felt a presence behind them. They all spun around and were confronted by the sight of a young girl.. As they looked at her, they recognized her by the iconic inverted heart pendant around her neck.

_"You have no business here.."_ she said.

Her voice was as wispy as the sound of wind rustling through dry leaves. Roxas swallowed hard as a shiver went through him. Taking a breath, Sora stepped forward.

"We.. We heard something happened here.."

_"You looked for yourself and you had found the truth.." _said the girl._ "But.. You will never understand.."_

Her voice was now more strained as if in pain. Hesitantly, Sora took another step closer to the girl.

"Please, we just want to know what happened.."

Sora's voice was shaky, his hand inching closer toward her. The moment his hand made contact, Sora felt a bitter coldness shoot up his arm, feeling as though thousands of needles were digging in before he lost all feeling in his arm.

Sora gasped as he yanked it back, only to have it nearly torn from the socket as the apparition grabbed it, pulling him closer. Sora's eyes grew wide as he stared into the girl's face; pale white, rotting skin pulled over the bone like rags. The empty sockets of her eyes penetrated Sora's soul, chilling him to his very core.

Blood and rot dribbled from the girl's lips as she spoke.

_"Get... Out..."_ she hissed, baring her horrible thorn-like teeth.

"Hey! HANDS...off!" Axel roared out, and his weapon swung down.

_*KA-CHUNK!* _

Her hand got cut off, Sora gasping in shock as Axel glowered darkly at the fierce, terrifying-looking ghost, trying to put up a brave face, very clearly, and doing surprisingly well.

"Nobody hurts my friends, tortured soul or not!"

The apparition snarled, rot and blood spilling from her mouth as the smell of burning flesh filled the air.

_"You were FOOLISH to come here!"_ she hissed. _"You should've never COME HERE!"_

As her voice rose, an eerie wind swirled around the friends as the house became more and more decayed and a heat began to radiate around them as if the entire house was ablaze!

"I think we gotta get out of here!" Roxas cried out, shielding his face as Axel nodded.

"Hold on!" He cried out, launching his chakram through the air, blowing open a hole in the wall so they could try and escape. "Let's go, go, go!"

As they were rushing out, Axel was forced back by a powerful force of magic.

_"You choose to intrude onto my resting place and now you shall share my GRAVE!"_

The entire room began to shudder and tremble as the ceiling gave way, heaps of wood and stone crashing down upon him.

As the others were at the main floor, Roxas spun around as the entire floor collapsed behind them.

"Axel!"

Roxas hurried down into the pit that now took the place of the floor.

"Roxas! WAIT!" cried Sora.

Roxas however refused to stop as he reached the pile of rubble Axel had become buried beneath.

"Axel! Axel I'm HERE!"

He started trying to dig his friend out from beneath the rubble.

Axel was pinned beneath the rubble, moaning, a trickle of blood oozing down from his head as he shakily called out to Roxas.

"Hey man...d-don't want to worry you, but...I'm not...not feeling so...good..." He murmured out.

Roxas has managed to get much of the debris off, having dug to the point of cutting up his hands. Tears slipped down his face as he took in his the sight of his friend's injuries as blood had begun to pool beneath him.

**Author's Note: I apologize for taking such a long time, but I have been extremely busy with other things.. I will try to get more up soon..**


	3. Chapter 3

Part Two

"Axel.."

Roxas took his hand and held it tight. From behind him, Sora, Riku, and Kairi stopped a look of horror crossing their faces. Roxas turned to his friends, tears streaming down his cheeks.

"Guys! Help me!" he cried to them.

Sora and the others began to continue trying to dig Axel out.

"Hey...I'm okay, really...OOGH...boy, does it sting..." Axel said, chuckling a bit.

"Save your energy! We're getting you out!" Sora insisted.

"Hey, I'm a big boy...I can...take it..." Axel cringed.

Kairi reached into her pocket and took out a potion.

"Here.. This will help.." she assured him.

Carefully, Kairi began to pour it over the wound on Axel's head. The potion began to seep into the wound and seemed to give off a numbing sensation.

Sora, Roxas, and Riku continued digging until he was free from the rubble. As they pulled him free, they were horrified to find Axel covered in gashes and gashes and his cloak was completely tattered from the debris. Beneath him was a puddle of blood that was staining the worn concrete of the room. Sora felt a lump forming in his throat at the sight of the blood while Kairi openly started crying.

"Axel.. I'm so sorry.." Roxas whimpered.

He tightened his grip on Axel's hand as more tears fell from his eyes.

From behind then, they heard a mocking cackle, like that of broken glass.

_"Such a pity no one can hear your cries."_

Roxas, Sora, Riku, and Kairi spun around as the apparition rose from the rubble to approach them.

_"You should not weep for what you can not prevented."_

Kairi was the first to speak.

"Please..." she whimpered, her voice trembling slightly.

_"Please?"_ said the girl. _"What reason should I listen to you?"_

"Why are you DOING this!?" Roxas demanded, more tears falling down his face.

_"As I had said before.. You looked, you found, and now you will all share my grave."_

"But that's not FAIR!" Sora shouted.

_"Fair? FAIR? What is FAIR in this world!?"_

Axel's eyes glowed darkly. He looked angry. He looked...furious.

"You shut your mouth or I shut it for you." He whispered as a cold rage began to seep over his words. He sounded terrifying, the others glancing nervously in his direction.

The appreciation only looked at him, before turning around.

_"As I said.. You would never understand.."_

She then vanished close to where the body had originally been found. As she disappeared, they turned back to Axel. Sora was becoming more concerned as the bleeding had barely slowed down.

"Axel, you need to calm down.." he insisted. "You're still bleeding really bad."

"Not to mention, your back and ribs could have been broken from being buried." Riku added.

Riku nodded and Roxas was relieved. He then turned toward where the apparition had disappeared to and slowly made his way toward the chest. Hesitating he looked inside the chest.. And in the corpse's arms was looked like a small journal. He took a slow and shaky breath and slowly extracted the book out of the death grip, wincing as a low crack filled the air from the brittle bones breaking to pieces. He was then hit by a pungent smell, making him gag and topple over.

"What's that?" asked Sora, hurrying over to him.

Roxas fought not to be sick as he glanced up

"I.. Think.. It's a book.."

"Let's see what's inside." Kairi said as she read through it, but the more she read...the more horrified she looked, her eyes going wider and wider. "Ohhhh deaaar."

"What's in it?" Sora asked.

"It's...this book is a diary. This girl became VERY intrigued by the Unversed. She wanted to understand how they worked so she began to dive into dark magic to comprehend them."

"Why's she in a CHEST?" Riku inquired.

"Well, her parents eventually learned about all this and they didn't much like what she was doing. They...they saw her as turning into an evil little witch and they...they cast a sleeping spell on her, the final pages she wrote detail that they buried her alive in the chest!"

The others all looked stricken, disgusted, or horrified.

"Then they tried to burn down the house to cover what they've done.." Riku concluded, more to himself than anyone else.

Roxas looked at the floor, having become visibly sick at the thought of how frightened the girl must have been to be trapped inside that chest. Tears began to form in his eyes as fought not to be sick.

"Roxas?" said Sora.

Axel wiped his brow, then rested a hand on Roxas's shoulder.

"Hey...you alright?" He asked, now sounding very worried.

Tears were flowing down Roxas's cheeks now, and Kairi found herself wrapping her arms around him to try and comfort him.

"We.. We need to.." he took a slow breath. "We need to bury her.."

Axel hesitated, but Sora nodded.

"He's right. We need to put her soul at rest or she'll keep hurting people. It's just what's right."

Riku and Kairi nodded and began to try and help them move the chest.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

After finding a peaceful spot just beyond the town limits within a hidden garden, they buried the chest. After finishing, Sora and Roxas placed a stone marker for her grave. Roxas looked down at the mound of freshly dug earth and could feel tears forming again.

"We're sorry this happened to you.." Roxas said.

Fresh tears streamed down Roxas's cheeks. Sora gently placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Hopefully, this will put her soul at rest." Riku remarked as Kairi nodded in agreement, Axel getting out a candle, lighting it up and putting it on her grave.

As they stood before the grave, the wind blew about around them. Sensing a presence, Sora and the others turned to it was her.. The girl from the chest.. She however, was no longer in the state she had been in before as she seemed to look like any other young girl would.

_"They called me 'Witch of Darkness'."_ she said, her voice sounding like that of shock and sadness. _"But you.. Why did you do this?"_

"Well, it's the right thing to do.." Sora replied. "We know what happened to you was horrible and you never deserved to be treated that way.. So.. We wanted to make things right.."

The girl looked at him and his friends before placing an icy hand against the stone near the grave.

_"I guess I had been wrong about you.."_

"Well I'm just glad we could put you to rest." Roxas said, nodding his head, looking resolute.

"I'm just astounded nobody bothered to LOOK for you. That's disgusting." Axel remarked.

The girl was silent as her expression became more sad. Sora made his way over to the girl and stopped before her.

"In any case, we were happy to help."

The girl looked up from the grave and after hesitating for a few moments, she made her way closer toward him. Sora felt a coldness on his shoulder but did not draw away from it as he looked at the apparition.

_"I wish to thank you.."_ she stated.

She then turned toward the others.

_"All of you.."_

Sora smiled and placed a hand on the girl's shoulder in return, soon realizing how empty the space really was. He however knew it wasn't truly empty, and so he kept his hand on her shoulder.

"We wish you luck in the next life." Sora stated, a soft smile showing on his face.

The girl smiled and nodded. After a few moments, she let go and took a few steps away from them. Sora and his friends watched in awe as a bright and golden light began to encompass the girl, cast a brilliant essence of warmth that surrounded all of them. The girl smiled as she was slowly consumed by the light. She turned her gaze up toward the sky as little by little, her being vanished from sight. The girl was finally at rest.

Sora turned his gaze back toward the grave letting out a soft breath. Riku made his way over to his best friend's side and lightly clasped his shoulder.

"Everything okay?" he asked.

Sora turned toward him, a look of sadness in his bright sapphire eyes.

"I just.. I wish we could've.."

He trailed off as Roxas made his way over to them. Roxas placed his hand on Sora's other shoulder.

"We know, Sora.." he replied. "But she is at rest.. It's all that matters now.. She is finally in peace.."

Sora nodded, though he still had a sad expression. Kairi made her way over toward him and hugged him gently. Sora looked up, his face heating up slightly as he soon smiled softly. Kairi returned the smile and soon turned her gaze toward the night sky, Sora and the others soon following suit as they smiled as they witnessed a brightly shining star suddenly wink into existence above them.

The End

**Author's Note: And so ends another story.. This had taken some time for me to work on, since I had been extremely busy.. In any case, I hope you all enjoyed my story and have a great day**

**PS~ Happy Halloween!**


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